10 Most Controversial Changes Made In Arrowverse Shows
2. Multiple Black Canaries
When Arrow began it was clear that Oliver Queen's primary love interest Dinah Laurel Lance was destined to follow in her comic book counterpart's footsteps and take up the mantle of the Black Canary. However, as the show went on, it would end up doing its own thing and ultimately ended up giving that mantle to four different women.
Did it work? Well, that's a complicated one. On one hand, it did because it introduced the badass Sara Lance as The Canary - the prototype Canary who would go on to become Legends of Tomorrow's White Canary. However, on the other hand, it completely undermined the importance of the Black Canary herself by suggesting that the mantle is interchangeable when, in reality, we all know that's preposterous.
The original Laurel deserved to be the only Black Canary, but her journey was initially undercut by Sara's arrival - and again, by some poor writing when she finally did take up the mantle and was eventually killed off. Though her successor Dinah Drake came into her own towards the end of the series, a complete lack of interest in the character prevented her from doing anything of importance until the Green Arrow and The Canaries backdoor pilot (and the idea of introducing another Dinah was a stupid attempt to position her as the true Black Canary - one that fans saw right through).
Earth-2 Laurel Lance - a.k.a. Black Siren - ended up becoming the most comic-accurate of them all and allowed the show to end with the Black Canary that fans always deserved. It didn't exactly make up for the shambles they made of the character's legacy, but it was worth it just to see Katie Cassidy thrive in the leading role she'd been robbed of years earlier